This Is The Sound of My Soul

Saturday Stories

December 23, 2017

I.

"Some people are so poor, all they have is money." My childhood friend and fellow author Elizabeth Castillo shared that passage in her Timeline a few days ago. I find it very meaningful, and I wrote back.

I tend to feel more contemplative during Christmas and New Year, and since I have a compulsion to record my thoughts, I'm collecting here some of my letters in our correspondence. Here I'm finally able to articulate some of my deepest thoughts on human nature.

II.

I once left a company because it has become too bureaucratic, and I found it interesting when somebody there thought I was envious because he got promoted in a place that was too toxic for me. I know he is using his bigger paycheck to feel superior, but I don't understand why there are people like him who bring others down so they can boost their own egos. It can be very illuminating when you contemplate human nature.

Perhaps it's built-in in us human beings to want to validate our existence. I guess that explains why we feel good when others say good things about us, and vice versa. But those who feel there is something missing in their lives try to fill it in using external standards: money, power, social status. But, for me, generally, the mere fact that a person is desperate to feel superior to another is a sure sign of that inner void.

I've been studying Neuro-Linguistic Programming which says that people are unique even in how they perceive things. For example, I'm the type of who tends to see the similarity in a group of objects, in contrast to those who see the differences. In that sense, I see that we humans all want the same thing: to be happy. It's just that we pursue it in our own ways, which is fine because I love the diversity of this world. But when we are forced to be like everybody else, to conform to what others say we should be, then we begin to feel the conflict in wanting to be accepted, and in wanting to be authentic.

I wonder what prevents some people from appreciating diversity? There is so much beauty in the world precisely people are so different from each other. Isn't it ironic that there are those who think they are so special and one-of-a-kind, then they judge others who are different? It makes you wonder what they want: a game of clones?